The Iranian Football Federation FFIRI has issued a statement published on its website regarding the progress of its complaints against AFC in the Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS. The text of the statement is hereunder:

1- The judges of CAS acknowledge the receipt of an Official letter from FFIRI on Tuesday 13^th April 2021, in form of a petition against AFC and request for reversal of its decision to award the hosting of World Cup Qualifier matches to a competitor (Bahrain). The issue has been assigned to a panel of experts.

2- About the letter received from the plaintiff (FFIRI) the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has accepted the complaint and its contents and consequently allowed the Asian Football Confederation 10 days to respond to the complaint.

3- CAS, recognizing the importance and the urgency of the matter has assigned 3-judge panel to pursue the complaint and review the situations and conditions for a final ruling.

The FFIRI has reached the Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS to file a case against the Asian football ruling body in protest to the award hosting rights for the centralized preliminary rounds of World Cup qualifiers to Bahrain. AFC has claimed that the selection was done fairly based on several factors that the AFC has refused to disclose to the media!

AFC has refused to answer queries by World Media and has not been transparent on this selection mechanism.

Iran has already lost away games to Iraq and Bahrain, so centralizing in Bahrain gives the Bahrainis an unfair advantage while FIFA and AFC spread the sermon of “Fair Play” worldwide. At this stage of World Cup 2022 qualifying, only group winners are guaranteed to go through to the final group qualifying, with the other five slots going to the best-placed group runners-up.

The Iranians claim that they should be hosting the group and that the AFC made the decision to go to Bahrain under pressure from AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who is from Bahrain. AFC claims that the decision to go to Bahrain was made on the hosting criteria the AFC has had for competitions during the pandemic. At the top of that list is whether the traveling players and staff will be safe.  Facts say otherwise, See the table below

Insiders claim that Dato’ Windsor John, Secretary-General was the force behind this controversial award to satisfy his boss, Shaikh Salman. The Bahraini AFC President has cleverly stayed away from the issue, but ultimately, he is accountable and culpable.

This is the first time in the history of the World Cup since 1930, that a team plays both it is away and home matches at the opponent’s country.

COVID19 Worldwide statistics.

If the AFC decision claims that Bahrain is safer (…) in terms of COVOD19, then this table refutes that claim. Bahrain is a small island with the sixth highest population density in the world (2159 per sq/km compared to 59 per sq/km for Iran). It has a ratio of 90,877 COVID19 cases per 1 million population. Iran on the other hand has less than half of that figure, nearly a third with 25,271. There are other statistical and legal arguments that do not put Bahrain ahead of Iran in terms of health hazards and safety in the pandemic.